Getting lost in Ancient City of Priene, Miletus, and Didyma (PMD) in Turkey

Priene, Miletus, and Didyma (also known as PMD) are three great ancient Greek City ruins in Turkey. Like any other roman or greek ruins, it has several buildings and functions which you can imagining being at before centuries. They are considered significant among other Hellenistic Period/Age (a period between the death of Alexander the Great and the rise of the Roman Empire). If you crave for Roman and Greek Ruins, PMD one day tour could satisfy your craving.

– Priene –

Priene is a ancient Greek City of Ionia and located near to Mount Mykale. It is 35 kilometer south of Selcuk. Priene city was dated back around 300 BC (at least that’s how old the current ruins that we find today in the site). It was built overlooking the Meander River (now is a flat plain) and with the background of Mount Mykale. These are some building ruins that you can find in Priene.

The map in Priene entrance

The wall that surround the city. We passed this road to get inside

The Theater

The picture above is the honorary seat that were placed in first row.

The view of the stage structure

The view of the theater from the front side

Our guide pointing to the now-ruins of the front stage structure

The structure on a closer look

The Temple of Athens

The five pillars remain intact. The temple has 6×11 pillars

As you can see on the back of the sanctuary of Athens was Mount Mykale

The ruins of the sanctuary of Athens. The view was Meander River (now is a plain land)

The ruins of the pillars from Temple of Athens. I wish the full evacuation works could bring full profile of the architecture

The Agora (City Assembly/Gathering Place)

The Agora is sized 75×46 meters and surrounded by porticoes

The entrance of the Agora

– Miletus –

Miletus is another Greek city famous for its Hellenistic art, located about 25 kilometers south of Priene. It is famous for its 25,000 seats theater. It was an important city for Ionian for 1400 years. Over centuries, the city lost its significance due to silted up by Meander River. These are things you can see in the site. For more reference about Miletus, you can go here.

The Theater

This magnificent theater is immediately available when you enter the site. This theater was re-built during Hellenistic period. It used to contain as many as 25,000 people

This is the view of from the top of the Theater looking down to the front surrounding. It was so windy out there and the sun shone bright as well.

The Roman Bath

This roman bath was built on 1st century AD.

– Didyma –

Didyma (meaning is twin, refer to the twins of Apollo and Artemis) is a sacret site from Greek world. The site mainly contain the temple of Apollo.

The temple of Apollo. There used to be 122 columns in the area, but only three remain. The column is 60 feet tall. The design of the temple was almost the same with temple of Artemis in Ephesus.

The above travel took place on May 29th 2013. With the help of photos i took during the trip and great article from here and here, i tried to write about the trip which was one of the great experience ever in Turkey. Even if you’re not a fan of history, only walk around on the site can give a sense of admiration and sheer wonder. It’s not every day you’ve got to see cultural heritage of Greek that span thousands of years and they are very majestic and pretty. For those of you who are currently planning your trip to Turkey, don’t miss Priene, Miletus, and Didyma. They are full of amazing history, art, and architecture.

I'm Asana Kusnadi from Semarang Indonesia. Some of my friends call me Mei, it is taken from my Chinese Name. I was born in Semarang, capital city of Central Java and lived there until I graduated from University. After graduated i worked in Sumatera island and it's been almost 9 years now i live in Riau Province

Comments

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

I like to consider myself as a citizen of the world. I love arts, especially those expressed in building or architecture.
I'm currently in Riau - Indonesia, practice social distancing and on partial lockdown